1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication device and a system startup method for this apparatus.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-218647, filed Jul. 28, 2005, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
All patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles, and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by reference in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art to which the present invention pertains.
In wireless communication devices that have a wireless communication function such as, for example, mobile telephones, system programs and data and the like are stored in a ROM (read only memory) that generally uses a NOR flash memory. The NOR flash memory can accept for random accesses. An MPU (micro processing unit) is configured to directly read contents that are stored in the NOR flash memory and to execute commands or instructions and further to acquire data and the like. When this system is started up, it is normal for initialization processing to be performed in the sequence of hardware initialization, memory check and initialization, and then initialization of each module. After this initialization processing sequence has ended, the system changes to a wait screen and enters an application startup stand-by state. Because of this, increasing the size of the system program increases the time that is required for initialization, resulting in that the application startup also takes a considerable length of time. This applies considerable stress to a user when the user has turned on the power and wishes to execute an application immediately.
Moreover, a flash memory having greater capacity and a lower price is being increasingly demanded for memory in order to store software and data and the like as the size of mobile telephone software, for example, system programs and applications, has increased. Consequently, the use of NAND flash memory instead of NOR flash memory is attractive. This NAND flash memory has the features of having large capacity and a low price, while also having fast access speeds and a small device size. Conversely, it has the defect of not allowing random access, and program codes and data cannot be used unless the contents of the NAND) flash memory are first loaded into RAM (random access memory). In addition, when the system is being started up, after the contents of the NAND flash memory have thus been loaded into RAM, the same initialization processing as is performed for NOR flash memory is performed. As a result, the problem arises that an even longer time is required for startup than when NOR flash memory is used.
Because the scale of software has become even larger as mobile telephones have become furnished with even greater functionality, shortening this system startup time has become an extremely pressing problem. For example, if the digital camera function of mobile telephones is considered, then it can be seen that the differentiation of functions between mobile telephones and modern digital cameras is gradually disappearing and the same startup time as is normal in modern digital cameras is demanded in mobile telephones. In order to solve such problems, a method is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, No. 2000-322264 in which program code for various system programs and applications and the like is stored in storage areas in ROM that have been allocated for the respective program codes. Based on information tables that show the priority sequence when the relevant program code is being loaded, loading is performed in sequence starting from the program code that requires the fast response.
However, when power is turned on, the user must determine this order of response, namely, which application is to be started up from among a plurality of applications, and this changes in accordance with the usage requirements of the user. In the conventional technology, the program code loading sequence, namely, which application is to be started up is fixed, so that there is little flexibility and the needs of the user are not satisfied. In view of the defects in a fixed system startup such as those in the conventional technology, the present invention provides a wireless communication device and a system startup method for this device that are highly usable and that enable applications required by a user to be given precedence during startup.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved device and/or method. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.